A current Houston player wasn’t too impressed by Alabama coach Nick Saban. But Saban made a real impression on a former Houston player, when the Titans were the Oilers and the Oilers were in Texas and Saban coached the defensive backs.
Cris Dishman, a Pro Bowl cornerback who played under Saban in the late 1980s, recalls in the excellent biography Saban: The Making of a Coach that the position coach provided constant agitation. (Monte Burke’s excellent look at one of the best college football coaches of all time debuts August 4; PFT has finagled an advance copy.)
“I thought my name was ‘F–king A–hole’ for a long time,” Dishman told Burke. “First name ‘F–king,’ last name ‘A–hole.'”
Dishman told Burke that the player occasionally checked the back of his jersey to make sure his real name was on there.
And Dishman wasn’t the only one who head it from Saban. Safety Keith Bostic once reacted to Saban during a meeting by pouncing on him. Bostic and Saban wrestled on the floor until other players broke it up.
The situation becomes downright bizarre when considering that the ultra-intense Saban worked on the Oilers staff for Jerry Glanville, a notoriously loose and undisciplined coach.
“I do think Nick was a little shocked at the way we did things here,” Glanville told Burke. “I do think I remember him smiling twice.”
That’s two more times than the rest of us remember him smiling.